


Need A Drink?

by gayestever



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: AU, Angst, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Fuckboy!Tyler, High School AU, M/M, Masturbation, brendon is cool, chubby!josh, ill update as i go, jock!tyler, josh is shy and awkward, joshler - Freeform, melanie is.. um.. yikes, nerd!josh, probably smut, tyler plays basketball, who the fuck knows tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-09 21:16:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7817536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayestever/pseuds/gayestever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyler Joseph is the pretty (albeit slightly douche-y) basketball captain, and Josh is, well, the opposite: nerdy, out of shape, and painfully shy. Despite being the new kid, Josh is pretty well versed on what kind of person Tyler is- so why does his heart have to be so determined to fall in love with him?</p><p> </p><p>(Josh falls in love over a series of Gatorade bottles, and finds himself opening up in ways he had never had the chance to open up before. Tyler has a hard time showing his feelings- or even understanding them himself- which causes some complications, but some extremely important basketball games and bad math grades help smooth out the bumps in the road.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Thirst

**Author's Note:**

> im always a slut for fuckboy!tyler and nerdy!josh who is secretly witty as fuck. ty is the basketball captain and josh paints and plays drums!!! my babies!!!
> 
>  
> 
> warning: there will be slight angst and some weirdness towards being gay but it will be few and far between! there will be smut, but none of it will be important to the plot and i promise i will let u know so u can skip!! i dont want to make anyone uncomfortable. anxiety will be briefly described but there is no death and no self-harm, and very very minimal suicidal thought. also beeb is tylers best friend and melanie is just.... well.... yikes.
> 
> my twitter is colorbandits and my main tumblr is salemhowell, hmu :)

Josh’s hands were shaking a little bit, and his eyes were darting back and forth, but the music coming from his headphones gave him enough of a boost to at least appear semi-confident. The first day at a new school was never easy- not for the two times during Freshman year, or right in the middle of Sophomore year- but at least those times Josh had the comfort of knowing he would probably be moving again in the near future. Any embarrassment would be short lived, and making friends would have only hurt him in the end, really.

But this time would be different, because he would be living in Owensville, Ohio until he finished high school. Junior year was only a few months in and Josh needed to make a good impression on these people- it would be Hell if he didn’t have anything to take up his time while he lived in the little shitsmear of a town he had landed himself in. He even went as far as to wear his favorite black skinny jeans and a pale yellow shirt with the NASA logo on it, which highlighted his soft curves nicely and made him look more approachable than his normal black-on-black outfits did- he really, really wanted to make a good impression.

The hallways were busy and he got a few stares, but the high school was the dumping grounds for all of the ‘smart’ kids from surrounding counties, so it seemed entirely plausible to most people that they had just missed him in the halls (he wasn’t exactly the type of person who stood out in a crowd, after all). For the most part his day was uneventful- he was assigned seats in classes, his teachers were impressed by the records from his previous schools, and he had gotten a few compliments on his messy hair and the pins on his backpack.

Then it was time for lunch. He didn’t have anyone to sit with, and had underestimated how hungry he would be, so he sat alone in the courtyard and drank his Gatorade to soothe his growling stomach for the duration of the period. A run-down looking basketball court sat a few feet to his left, and he occasionally glanced over at the boys that were playing. Josh remembered hearing something about the excellent basketball team from his Mother, but normally when she went on rants Josh just tuned her out, so he couldn’t recall the conversation very clearly.

A part of him was itching to pull out the book his new English teacher had assigned the class and catch up to everyone else, but a larger part of him was content with watching the group of slightly sweaty basketball players- especially the oddly lanky boy with the fading red Taco Bell shirt. His Gatorade was half empty and his mind was somewhere in space when Taco Bell boy broke off from his group, punching another player on the shoulder softly before jogging over to Josh.

“Hey, I forgot to bring a drink and it’s grossly hot out here, do you think I could maybe fountain some of that?” The boy asked, motioning to Josh’s uncapped Gatorade bottle.

Josh hesitated, fumbling to think of a response, and in the time it took for him to figure out a coherent response the boy looming above him had gone a flushed shade of red. Josh pinned it down to the heat, and definitely not a blush, and went to hand over his drink.

“I- um- would you maybe like these crackers, you know, in return? They’re a little, uh, crumbled but-”

“No! No, it’s fine, here, go ahead,” Josh mumbled, watching as the boy stuffed the crackers back into his pocket and moved his hand from where it had been scratching his neck. Everything he did seemed sort of magical, the movements fluid and graceful (very different from the way he spoke), and Josh was kind of disappointed when he finished carefully drinking and handed the bottle back. He got a brief ‘thanks!’ and a smile before the strangely pretty boy jogged back over to his basketball friends.

Josh was halfway to art class before he realized he had never gotten a name. He was still thinking about the offensively good-looking boy when his art teacher had told him to sit anywhere, so when someone waved him over to their table he was slightly relieved. There was only one chair left, but the girl that had beckoned him over seemed like the only one at the table paying attention- one boy was slumped in his seat, either asleep or close to it, and the other girl had in earbuds- so Josh figured the others wouldn’t care much at all.

“Are you new?” The girl looked him in the eyes. Josh nodded, and she seemed content to continue, “I guess that explains why you let Tyler’s lips touch something you own. Dude is a total manwhore- not to sound ignorant, but he’ll flirt with anything with a pulse. You better hope you don’t get, like, herpes or something!”

Josh would have been more bothered (maybe even slightly crushed) if he wasn’t so amused by the herpes comment. Oral herpes were, from what he knew, very visible, and neither he nor Tyler had them. He had opened his mouth to comment, but the teacher stood up from his desk and began to explain the new assignment, efficiently silencing him. The boy was still asleep, but the girl had the presence of mind to take one of her earbuds out. Josh ran a slightly pudgy hand through his unkempt hair, ready to do one of the very few things he was definitely good at- paint.

“I think Tyler looks like a good guy,” Josh stated while mixing orange and yellow paint together, concentrating on making it the perfect color.

“Everybody does- I mean, he’s captain of the basketball team, so he’s been put on a pedestal, and when you’re placed in a certain kind of light, people tend to see you how you’re portrayed,” for a second, she sounded almost intelligent, “but he’s totally a giant douche to people who aren’t close to him.”

As much as Josh wanted to learn more about Tyler, he decided that he hated talking to this close-minded girl and kept his mouth shut. He knew that, rationally, she had to be at least vaguely smart to make it into such a school, but the way she spoke was off-putting and made her sound ditzy. The rest of the period was spent painting silently and thinking about the maybe-blush on Tyler’s face, and how he was most certainly not a giant douche at lunch- and maybe, possibly, what flavor Gatorade Josh should bring in the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not much/any tyler/josh interaction in this chap but brendon is introduced!!! woohoo!!!! the next chapter should be up either tomorrow or the next day, and it will be of the game (where some Sick Drama will go down ;) be ready)
> 
> thank u once again for reading! please comment if u want to bc it makes my lil heart feel so happy!!

Josh was, by default, not very good at interacting with other people. He was painfully awkward at first, and getting over that stage where every interaction was a mess of strained laughs and faint blushing was usually not worth the effort. Conversations were not something he looked forward to, well, ever- they were draining and boring, people were simply not worth his time. Tyler, however, seemed to be an exception, because Josh spent a whole night thinking about what he would say next time they spoke.

He was surprisingly disappointed the next morning when he saw Tyler in the hall and didn’t get as much as a wave, or even a smile in his direction. His classes passed by in the fast way they always did- he was very capable of learning quickly, and it didn’t take much for information to sink into his head. It was time for lunch much faster than he had anticipated, and a small part of him was nervous. Josh hadn't had a crush on a boy in nearly a year, and he knew he had one in the makings for someone he hadn't really even spoken to- which would surely become a problem. He made his way to the same place he had sat the other day excitedly, holding an orange Gatorade and a granola bar.

His jeans were tight on his legs as he sat down, but he ignored the pull of the fabric and opened the cap to his drink effortlessly, taking a few small sips. Tyler and the others had beaten him there somehow, and it seemed like they were in the middle of choosing teams. A lanky boy with dark hair and darker jeans ran up to the court, and, in a flash, jumped on Tyler. Josh was surprised and a little bit (okay, maybe very) worried, but he could hear Tyler laughing from where he sat.

Tyler and the boy hugged for a solid minute, rocking back and forth and giggling loudly. Josh couldn’t help but feel disappointed, and took out his earbuds and phone. He had music next period, and had already spoken to the teacher about playing drums at the assemblies they regularly had where the musicians would show off their talent. They had agreed that he would play the drums during music class so the teacher could see how skilled he was. He figured he would listen to the piece he would be playing and get himself more excited and less nervous. It was hard to be upset when he was listening to someone play the drums, so he settled back in his seat with a smile on his face and ate his granola bar fairly peacefully, getting into the music and tuning out the world around him. It was a wonder that he managed to not play the air-drums along to the music.

When he came back to Earth he found the dark-haired boy sitting on a bench right next to the court, laughing at Tyler as he goofily ran about the cracked pavement. The other people in the group looked vaguely uncomfortable, as if they didn’t like the boy much, and Josh couldn’t help but feel the same way. Lunch ended and Tyler walked past Josh without a second look, talking to his friend loudly with a huge smile on his pretty face.

He walked to the music room with every intention of taking his frustration out on a drum set. When he arrived he saw two things: beautiful red drums, and Tyler with the boy from lunch. He sighed in frustration before making his way over to the teacher and introducing himself. Mr. Miller decided that it would be best for Josh to play right away, and he agreed.

“For those of you who haven’t met him, this is Joshua Dun, and he’ll be playing the drums for us today,” he addressed the rowdy class, and before Josh could correct him on his name he was handed a pair of sticks and practically shoved towards the drum set.

The seat was fairly small but he made do, bending his knees and concentrating on holding the sticks right in his shaking hands. Looking up and seeing Tyler sitting so close to a boy that wasn’t him made him unreasonably jealous, and so he set to work. The piece he chose was complicated, and once he really got going everybody in the room stopped and looked at him in awe. His hands moved almost naturally and he had his bottom lip captured between his teeth, carefully doing everything he was supposed to.

It was over too soon, and everybody clapped as he stood up. He desperately wanted to sit back down, to play more, to feel admiring eyes looking at him as he did something he was truly passionate about- but he couldn’t, so he made his way over to the nearest open seat and sat down gently, careful to not let the seat make any noise.

“Joshua, I think we can all agree that that performance was extremely impressive. I look forward to seeing you play again. Now, to start our lesson,”

Josh really wanted to like his music teacher- his last one had been more of a friend than a teacher, and really helped him improve- but he was stuffy and pretentious and Josh couldn’t bring himself to want to speak more with him. The girl next to him turned and told him he was really good, and he said thank you while ignoring her flirtatious smile because she was pretty but he was very into guys.

He learned that Tyler’s friend was named Brendon because he was talking over the teacher and get yelled at, but aside from that the rest of the period was fairly uneventful, as was the rest of the day. He had yet to meet anyone too interesting in any of his classes, and his mission to make friends was failing miserably. He couldn’t start conversations to save his life, and nobody was interested enough in him to say something first.

All he had left to do was put his unneeded books in his locker and he would be free to leave, to walk the two blocks home and settle in for the weekend. His history teacher shouted his name out and beckoned him towards his door. Josh was so close to pretending to have not heard him, but he had jumped a little when he heard his name so he had to walk over. A few people snickered, and when Josh looked over he saw some of Tyler’s basketball friends- they obviously thought he was a teacher’s pet. He never thought that such smart people could be so, well, stupid.

“Are you going to the game tonight?” The teacher asked curiously.

Josh wasn’t even aware there was a game, and he let Mr. Rodgers know, “I didn’t plan on doing anything but homework tonight, sir.”

The balding man briefly told him he should go, and as soon as Josh could escape he did. He still had to walk to his locker, but since there was a game Josh knew that he wasn’t in any danger of being the only person still in the hallways- he heard some of the basketball players talking about the pre-game in the gym as he was walking to his locker. He assumed they stayed and practiced, since some players lived a forty minute bus ride from the school. Once his books were safe he started to walk towards the exit, taking his time.

“Hey, you’re Joshua, right? You’re sick at the drums,” Brendon said with a smile.

Josh didn’t feel like he was being mocked, and he hated Brendon a little less than he did during lunch. He slowed down and allowed the boy to catch up with him before replying, trying to sound friendly but winding up sounding blunt and uninterested.

“It’s just Josh, and thanks,”

They stopped at the exit after a good five minutes of mindless talking. The boy was actually fairly interesting- he played the guitar, had two lizards (Pancake and Lil Rascal), and had just came back from a week-long rest after having a surgery done. He had a really easy way of making everything sound cool, and he motioned with his hands when he talked and laughed a bit too loud at all of the right times. He wasn't phased by the bluntness of Josh's words or how he stuttered occasionally, and in turn Josh didn't mind how often he cursed or how he was accidentally a bit intrusive.

“You should come to the game tonight! Tyler is forcing me to go, and I fucking hate being alone in the stands,”

Josh wasn’t too sure that he wanted to go, to watch Brendon cheer on his maybe-boyfriend while he played a game Josh didn’t really know much about, but he allowed the excited boy to program his number into his phone anyway. They parted ways at the school gates, and Josh managed to occupy his mind with other things until he got home and saw what Brendon had texted himself from Josh’s phone:

‘Me and Ty are just friends, in case you were wondering ;)’

That settled it- Josh was definitely going. Partially to see the only truly interesting person he had met since he arrived in Owensville, and partially to see what Tyler looked like in the school's gold and red basketball uniform.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this mess love u (unless u are a murderer)


End file.
